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Yorkshire Inquisitions
(1275-1295)Inquisitions post mortem are inquiries as to the real estate and heir of each person holding in capite or in chief, i. e. directly, from the Crown, or whose estates had been escheated or were in ward. The age and relationship of the heir are usually recorded. Inquisitions ad quod damnum enquired as to any activities (including maladministration by local officials) that had resulted in any material loss to the Crown. Proofs of age are inquiries into the precise date of birth of an heir, usually involving local inhabitants recalling those circumstances which fixed that date in their mind. Yorkshire inquisitions for this period were edited by William Brown for the Yorkshire Archaeological Society, and printed in 1898. This index covers all names mentioned, including jurors, tenants, &c.

ERNES. Cost: £4.00.

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Inhabitants of Cheshire and North Wales
(1390-1399)The county of Cheshire had palatine status, being in some measure independent of the rest of England: moreover, from the Statute of Wales of 1284, after king Edward I's subjugation of North Wales, until the union of England and Wales in 1536 to 1543, much of the administration of North Wales (county Flint in particular) was directed from Chester. When the Chester Recognizance Rolls were moved from Chester to the Public Record Office, they were placed among the Welsh Records. These rolls, so called because they do include recognizances (of debts &c.) among their contents, are in fact the Chancery Rolls of the palatinate, containing enrolments of charters, letters patent, commissions and other documents issued under the seal of the palatinate. Deeds and other evidences of a private nature were also enrolled on them. A calendar of the Recognizance Rolls from their commencement to the end of the reign of Henry IV was prepared by Peter Turner and included in the 36th Annual Report of the Deputy Keeper of the Public Records in 1875. We have now indexed this, dividing the enrolments into decades. This is the period from the 13th year of king Richard II, who had intended to raise the earldom of Chester into a principality, to his overthrow by Henry IV.

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Lichfield Diocese Ordinations: Subdeacons Secular
(1507)The diocese of Coventry and Lichfield at this period included the whole of Cheshire, Staffordshire and Derbyshire; all Lancashire south of the Ribble; northern Shropshire (including Shrewsbury); and northern Warwickshire (including Birmingham and Coventry). Ordinations took place on the four Ember Saturdays in the year, and on certain other occasions; lists of ordinands to the degrees of acolyte, subdeacon, deacon and priest were preserved in the ordination registers, a distinction being made between those clerks who were 'regular', i. e., monks, friars, &c., and those who were 'secular', the main body of the clergy. All ordinands were celibate, and those regular, and the secular who obtained benefices, remained so, but only a minority of the secular ordinands ever obtained benefices, and most will doubtless have married later in life. No man might be ordained to subdeacon or higher without proving either that he was of independent means or that he was sponsored by an institution or a gentleman. Most entries in the register of such ordinations therefore have the words 'ad titulum' followed by the name of the religious house that was the sponsor. This is an important indication of the man's origins - boys whose families were monastic tenants, and who were educated by the monks, would naturally be sponsored by the abbey. Only men who were born and bred in the diocese could be ordained by the bishop, unless producing letters dimissory from the bishop of the diocese of their birth. These are the ordinations celebrated on Ember Saturday, 18 September 1507, by Thomas bishop of Panados (Pavados), suffragan of bishop Geoffrey Blythe, in Lichfield cathedral.

ERNES. Cost: £8.00.

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Lichfield Diocese Ordinations: Subdeacons Secular
(1507)The diocese of Coventry and Lichfield at this period included the whole of Cheshire, Staffordshire and Derbyshire; all Lancashire south of the Ribble; northern Shropshire (including Shrewsbury); and northern Warwickshire (including Birmingham and Coventry). Ordinations took place on the four Ember Saturdays in the year, and on certain other occasions; lists of ordinands to the degrees of acolyte, subdeacon, deacon and priest were preserved in the ordination registers, a distinction being made between those clerks who were 'regular', i. e., monks, friars, &c., and those who were 'secular', the main body of the clergy. All ordinands were celibate, and those regular, and the secular who obtained benefices, remained so, but only a minority of the secular ordinands ever obtained benefices, and most will doubtless have married later in life. No man might be ordained to subdeacon or higher without proving either that he was of independent means or that he was sponsored by an institution or a gentleman. Most entries in the register of such ordinations therefore have the words 'ad titulum' followed by the name of the religious house that was the sponsor. This is an important indication of the man's origins - boys whose families were monastic tenants, and who were educated by the monks, would naturally be sponsored by the abbey. Only men who were born and bred in the diocese could be ordained by the bishop, unless producing letters dimissory from the bishop of the diocese of their birth. These are the ordinations celebrated on Ember Saturday, 18 December 1507, by Thomas bishop of Panados (Pavados), suffragan of bishop Geoffrey Blythe, in Lichfield cathedral.

ERNES. Cost: £8.00.

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Lichfield Diocese Ordinations: Deacons Secular
(1508)The diocese of Coventry and Lichfield at this period included the whole of Cheshire, Staffordshire and Derbyshire; all Lancashire south of the Ribble; northern Shropshire (including Shrewsbury); and northern Warwickshire (including Birmingham and Coventry). Ordinations took place on the four Ember Saturdays in the year, and on certain other occasions; lists of ordinands to the degrees of acolyte, subdeacon, deacon and priest were preserved in the ordination registers, a distinction being made between those clerks who were 'regular', i. e., monks, friars, &c., and those who were 'secular', the main body of the clergy. All ordinands were celibate, and those regular, and the secular who obtained benefices, remained so, but only a minority of the secular ordinands ever obtained benefices, and most will doubtless have married later in life. No man might be ordained to subdeacon or higher without proving either that he was of independent means or that he was sponsored by an institution or a gentleman. Most entries in the register of such ordinations therefore have the words 'ad titulum' followed by the name of the religious house that was the sponsor. This is an important indication of the man's origins - boys whose families were monastic tenants, and who were educated by the monks, would naturally be sponsored by the abbey. Only men who were born and bred in the diocese could be ordained by the bishop, unless producing letters dimissory from the bishop of the diocese of their birth. These are the ordinations celebrated on Ember Saturday, 18 March 1508, by bishop Geoffrey Blythe, in Longdon prebendal church.

ERNES. Cost: £8.00.

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Lichfield Diocese Ordinations: Priests Secular
(1508)The diocese of Coventry and Lichfield at this period included the whole of Cheshire, Staffordshire and Derbyshire; all Lancashire south of the Ribble; northern Shropshire (including Shrewsbury); and northern Warwickshire (including Birmingham and Coventry). Ordinations took place on the four Ember Saturdays in the year, and on certain other occasions; lists of ordinands to the degrees of acolyte, subdeacon, deacon and priest were preserved in the ordination registers, a distinction being made between those clerks who were 'regular', i. e., monks, friars, &c., and those who were 'secular', the main body of the clergy. All ordinands were celibate, and those regular, and the secular who obtained benefices, remained so, but only a minority of the secular ordinands ever obtained benefices, and most will doubtless have married later in life. No man might be ordained to subdeacon or higher without proving either that he was of independent means or that he was sponsored by an institution or a gentleman. Most entries in the register of such ordinations therefore have the words 'ad titulum' followed by the name of the religious house that was the sponsor. This is an important indication of the man's origins - boys whose families were monastic tenants, and who were educated by the monks, would naturally be sponsored by the abbey. Only men who were born and bred in the diocese could be ordained by the bishop, unless producing letters dimissory from the bishop of the diocese of their birth. These are the ordinations celebrated on Ember Saturday, 17 June 1508, by Thomas bishop of Panados (Pavados), suffragan of bishop Geoffrey Blythe, in Lichfield cathedral.

ERNES. Cost: £8.00.

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Traders and professionals in London
(1851)The Post Office London Directory for 1851 includes this 'Commercial and Professional Directory', recording about 80,000 individuals.

ERNES. Cost: £4.00.

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Traders and professionals in London
(1856)The Post Office London Directory for 1856 includes this 'Commercial and Professional Directory', recording over 100,000 individuals.